Our Staff
We have four staff members here at Empty Arms: Carol McMurrich, Lisa Hamilton, Veronica Lee, and Greta Kohl. Our team cranks out the work of Empty Arms, with the support and dedication of this entire team you see below! Running this organization is a labor of love and all of us extract a huge amount of personal satisfaction from the amazing relationships we build every day doing this work.
Carol McMurrich (she/her/hers) is our our founder and director. She heads up the programming and people-organizing for Empty Arms. Carol is our educator, she conducts all of the professional trainings we provide to healthcare providers, our peer companions, and our support group facilitators. She currently facilitates our Stillbirth and Infant Loss Support Group, and the Parenting After Loss Support Group. After the birth and death of her first daughter, Charlotte, Carol has welcomed four healthy children and relishes being a present and active mother to them. Read more about Carol here.
Carol can be reached at carol@emptyarmsbereavement.org
Lisa Hamilton (she/her/hers)is our project manager who helps to keep all of our projects on a timely schedule and assists Carol in all the day-to-day functions of carrying out our program goals. Lisa also keeps track of our income and expenses, facilitates our Twin Loss Support Group (while parenting a surviving twin or multiples), and is a Peer Companion. Lisa has experienced two pregnancy losses. One, a baby girl, Hannah, a miscarriage in her second trimester, and the other the loss of a Lucy, twin baby girl while pregnant for the fifth time, the surviving twin would go on to become her third living son.
Lisa can be reached at lisa@emptyarmsbereavement.org
Veronica Lee (she/her/hers) is the Development & Operations Manager for our organization. She is the force behind our fundraising campaigns, communications plans, and events. Veronica manages a detailed donor database and supports the sustainability of funding for Empty Arms so we can continue to serve our community at no cost to families.
Veronica can be reached at veronica@emptyarmsbereavement.org
Our Peer Companions
Our Bilingual Peer Companions
Our Group Facilitators
Amber Bemak (Miscarriage and Early Pregnancy Loss Support Group, LGBTQIA+ Loss Support Group)
Carol McMurrich (Stillbirth and Infant Loss Support Group, Parenting After Loss Support Group, Trying for Another Baby after Loss Support Group, Parenting After Loss Support Group)
Charlotte Capogna-Amias (Infertility and Loss Support Group)
Chelsea Levis (Trying for Another Baby after Loss Support Group)
Elizabeth Evans (TFMR Support Group, Infertility and Loss Support Group)
Emma Dweck (TFMR Support Group, Infertility and Loss Support Group)
Erin Hatch (Trying for Another Baby after Loss Support Group)
Hannah Karpman (LGBTQIA+ Loss Support Group)
John Bandeian (Dad’s Bereavement Support Group)
Lisa Hamilton (Twin Loss Support Group, Miscarriage and Early Pregnancy Loss Support Group)
Maria Torres (Miscarriage and Early Loss Support Group)
Our Board
Empty Arms is governed by a working board of eight to ten members, all of whom are totally committed to the work that we do. Every board member has a deep personal connection to pregnancy or infant loss, either through personal experience or professionally. We're so grateful to have this amazing team to help us make decisions, to fundraise, and plan for the future of this organization.
Our officers
Chris Overtree, PhD: Board President, Child Psychologist, UMass faculty, Amherst MA
Adam Baker: Board Treasurer, Vice President & Commercial Loan Officer at Greenfield Cooperative Bank
Our Directors
Brenda L. Solivan: Bereaved Parent, LICSW
Jesus Acosta
Jillian Atstupenas: Bereaved parent, Peer Facilitator, Compliance Attorney
Kate Lande Schmeiser, Ph.D.: Professor of Economics, Mount Holyoke College
Katie Barker
Lindsey Rothschild: Bereaved Parent, City Councilor City of Easthampton, Real Estate Agent
Melissa Mills-Dick